6. Data Policies

As part of the Arizona Strategic Enterprise Technology Office, the State Data Management Architect establishes data governance policies that address technology; security; privacy; and communication strategies, policies, and procedures. Arizona operates under a statewide data-sharing memorandum of understanding. Implemented in 2019 and signed by 29 agencies, the MOU facilitates data sharing between agencies to support state-administered programs. These 29 agencies comprise the State Data Interoperability Council, which meets quarterly to focus on “reducing risk, maximizing efficiency, increasing the value of data exchanges and ensuring that systems are developed and maintained in accordance with Statewide and Budget Unit (BU) strategic plans.”

California’s statewide open data policy (2019) encourages departments to share data in standard and accessible formats through the California Open Data Portal. In 2022, California published a new, user-friendly, simplified Open Data Handbook, to help improve consistency in data publishing, and encourage collaboration, transparency, innovation, and effectiveness.

In Spring 2021, all entities under the authority of the Governor of California signed a single Interagency Data Exchange Agreement (IDEA), an umbrella memorandum of understanding (MOU) that is intended to facilitate data exchange between state entities in California. It is both a process tool and a set of resources designed to help state entities exchange data more efficiently, while ensuring that the exchange is legal and secure. Under IDEA, signatory entities draft a Business Use Case Proposal (BUCP) that details the specifics of their data exchange. IDEA is supported by detailed handbooks, a community of practice, and a resource library.

In 2022, California launched (AB 133) the statewide Health and Human Services Data Exchange Framework, including guiding principles, policies and procedures, and a single data sharing agreement. The Stakeholder Advisory Group collaborates closely with CHHS and brings expertise and perspectives of a number of organizations and state agencies on the development of the framework. This statewide data-sharing agreement will accelerate and expand the exchange of health information among health care entities, government agencies, and social service programs. The ultimate goal is that all residents should receive healthcare and social services with the assurance that their service providers can access the information they need to provide safe, effective, whole person care—while keeping their data private and secure.  

A 2018 Connecticut law required each state agency to designate an agency data officer to manage high-value data sets and coordinate data-related activities with the state Chief Data Officer. The Chief Data Officer, along with individual agency data officers, is required to biannually update the state data plan, which covers open data and creates data standards for agencies. The plan also contains 11 principles and accompanying practices that all agencies should adopt to improve their management, use, sharing, and analysis of data. In addition, a 2019 law required a report on the legal issues surrounding interagency data sharing. Based on analysis of 17 state agencies and 224 data-sharing agreements, the report recommends: 1) establishing a coordinated governance structure for cross-agency data sharing, and 2) implementing cross-agency data-sharing agreements that are more flexible and durable. Building on this report, Connecticut released a Data-Sharing Playbook in 2020 to help agencies share data safely, securely, and ethically.

Connecticut integrated principles on ethics and equity into data collection as well. Enacted in 2021, Public Act (PA) 21-35 set a goal “to attain at least a seventy percent reduction in the racial disparities set forth in subdivisions (1) to (4), inclusive, of this subsection from the percentage of disparities determined by the commission on or before January 1, 2022.” It mandates the Office of Health Strategy (OHS) to develop race, ethnicity, and language (REL) data collection standards to support the Commission on Racial Equity in Public Health’s mission to create a comprehensive strategic plan to eliminate health disparities and inequities across sectors. REL data would be available for disaggregation and support development of targeted interventions to reduce racial disparities, and augment health care providers’ continuous efforts to provide high quality, effective, timely, patient-centered, equitable care to all patients, in Connecticut. In support of the goal and development of standards, OHS has developed documentation, implementation guidelines and has convened conversations with public agencies and other stakeholders on the development, implementation and impact of the new REL standards.

Connecticut expanded the coverage of the state longitudinal data system, P20 WIN, in 2021. Ten state agencies and the Office of Policy and Management completed the development of a multi-party interagency agreement to preserve privacy while improving data sharing, as part of the expansion of the P20 WIN state longitudinal data system. The interagency agreement develops the legal and governance framework for interagency data sharing and was promoted by the attorney general as a ‘uniform interagency data sharing protocol.’ The enterprise agreement is paired with individual data sharing agreements for the primary legal and regulatory frameworks used by agencies. The expansion of P20 WIN was cited as an example of ‘common platforms and visible successes’ in the Connecticut CREATES report.  

The Kentucky Center for Statistics (KYSTATS) collects and links high-quality, actionable data from six state agencies to improve education and workforce programs in the state. KYSTATS has a data request hub, which includes a data access and use policy, data-sharing agreement, and a data dictionary to facilitate the exchange of data with requestors. KYSTATS also has a Security Policy that contains procedures for securing the confidentiality of the data maintained by KYSTATS.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Researcher’s Guide to Massachusetts State Education Data contains data-sharing information about “what data is available, how to obtain and interpret it, and, ultimately, [how] to generate better research projects and more accurate and useful results” for improving student outcomes in the state. The guide has links to data sets such as aggregate data at the school and district levels, as well as information on confidential student-level data, non-confidential student-level data, and educator data. The department’s data-sharing memorandum of understanding template and corresponding approval process reiterates the confidentiality of student-level data.

In 2021, the Maryland Governor signed two executive orders that created two leadership roles:  State Chief Data Officer and the State Chief Privacy Officer. The executive orders outlined a variety of roles and practices that these two leaders would implement across the state, including principles that vastly encourage the use of data for policy- and decision-making. The executive order states that data use and management should be prioritized, standardized, and coordinated to enhance cost-effectiveness of service delivery and improve business and governmental services. The executive order also encourages collaborative partnerships to derive valuable insights and new perspectives.

The State Chief Data Officer, in collaboration with Agency Data Officers, developed the State Data Strategic Plan, identifying goals, objectives, and outcomes to be achieved over the course of a two-year basis. The Strategic Plan establishes four areas of focus: Organization/Governance, Collaboration, People and Culture, and Innovation. These four areas each include specific objectives and a roadmap for completion included. Similarly, these data leaders developed State’s Data Governance Framework, which establishes the components necessary to develop Agency Specific Data governance plans. The framework defines the key components of the data governance plan, while allowing each agency to align their governance plan with their organizational goals, objectives, and structure. The statewide data terminology/glossary, data literacy program, and data sharing programs can be found at the CDO website.

In the interest of transparency and improving outcomes for publicly funded programs, a Minnesota statute, the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, establishes the state’s policy for sharing data with nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and local government agencies. This publicly available policy indicates that all government data collected, created, received, maintained, or disseminated by a government entity shall be shared unless such sharing is otherwise precluded by federal law or a more specific state statute.

Minnesota’s Impact Evaluation Unit has established data sharing agreements with state agencies to provide secure access to large data sets covering topics including, among others, public health, behavioral health, healthcare claims, criminal justice, and public assistance.

To address concerns raised by Minnesota families through the course of applying for government services, four state agencies and the Attorney General’s Office developed a joint powers data sharing agreement. This agreement allows state agencies – operating more than 30 programs – to better serve children by allowing participating state agencies to share eligibility information of families to connect them with services for which they may be eligible and communicate with them on how to apply for and access those services seamlessly.

Through Executive Order 143 (2020), the North Carolina governor directed the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to update reporting processes to increase the inclusion of racial and ethnic demographic data; to review data to determine impacts on communities of color; and to use collected data to allocate resources to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The processes focus on reducing the adverse health impacts on racial and ethnic minorities.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) regularly shares data across divisions and offices, as well as with other local, state, and federal government agencies and research partners. DHHS released a Data Sharing Guidebook which outlines policies for data sharing and integration between internal and external partners. The Data Sharing Guidebook includes links to publicly available data, information about the request process, and considerations for data owners and stewards, such as how racial equity and racial bias should be considered in the request.  

To combat incomplete or inconsistent data, New Jersey has set up asset level and column metadata standards for the datasets available on Data.NJ.Gov, the state’s open data portal.

In April 2019, Ohio’s Governor signed an executive order consolidating state data systems into the InnovateOhio Platform, which uses data as “a shared strategic asset” whose “value is multiplied when data sets are linked across programs and organizations” through data integration and management tools. The executive order created a presumption of data sharing between state agencies, except where a specific legal prohibition is identified in writing.

Published in February 2021, Oregon’s statewide 2021-2023 data strategy and data strategy website identify high-level principles and practices for how the state will effectively and ethically use data, including collection, use, design, community engagement, and transparency. The state continues working toward the actions identified in the data strategy’s biennial action plan pursuant to a 2017 law.

The Pennsylvania Governor’s executive order on open data, data management, and data governance, first issued in 2017 and amended in 2019, states that data shall be shared internally and externally, whenever possible unless restricted by federal, state, or other statutes or regulations, or policies, standards or best practices that prohibit the sharing of specific data, in order to foster innovation, cooperation, and transparency. To further support internal data sharing across the state, in 2017, the state created an enterprise data-sharing memorandum of understanding (eMOU), providing a more efficient process to obtain and provide data by, between, and among commonwealth agencies. When it comes to sharing geospatial data in particular, the Pennsylvania State Geospatial Board has a publicly available data-sharing agreement to facilitate the sharing of data between government entities and non-state data owners, including academia, business, and nonprofits. The impact of data sharing is reflected in the State Geospatial Board’s annual reports on state and local data sharing, COVID-19 response and recovery efforts, and land use and transportation planning.

The Data Ecosystem within the Executive Office of Health and Human Services has practices and policies that outline the data are governed and managed. To articulate the various policies, frameworks, and processes, the Data Ecosystem is centered on data that have race-explicit orientation and is centered on efforts to advance race equity. The Ecosystem states a commitment to racial justice and that racism is a public health emergency, drawing from two resources to support the framework. The system also has clear, detailed documentation of its data anonymization process, governance structure, sharing and use process. It also has information about the legal framework and inter-agency memorandum of understanding (iMOU) that includes the vision, mission, and governance processes for data sharing and data use licensing. It also makes a data license request publicly available. All these measures are designed to ensure proper practices are in place and that privacy are ensured so that data can be leveraged in meaningful ways to address key research and policy questions, as articulated by the ecosystem’s Learning Agenda.    

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) administers the Texas Student Data System, a statewide platform for collecting, managing, sharing, and reporting state education data. The system has a data standards and data governance process. Additionally, the Workforce Information System of Texas (TWIST) links data across workforce funding streams for intake, eligibility determination, and reporting on programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Employment and Training, and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act plan. Both these data platforms are used to assess grantee performance, identify common issues that could benefit from collaborative approaches, and understand residents’ needs. Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), Texas Higher Education Commission and Board (THECB), and Texas Education Agency (TEA) signed a single comprehensive MOU for data sharing between the three agencies in July of 2022.

In March 2021, the Utah Office of Health Disparities (UDOH) within the health department published an initial set of uniform data standards for the collection of race and ethnicity information collected by, sponsored by, or reported to the department. Led by the Governor’s Senior Advisor for Equity and Opportunity, these standards adhere to federal guidance on data collection standards and include a brief toolkit to help policymakers and officials implement the standards. These standards have enhanced UDOH’s Vaccination by Race/Ethnicity Weekly Report and other efforts to support a more equitable recovery, such as the COVID-19 Multicultural Advisory Committee.

In 2020, a Virginia executive order established data governance bodies to improve data sharing between state agencies and localities. The executive order implements the recommendations from the 2019 publication Data Sharing and Analytics Governance Structure for the Commonwealth of Virginia Report. The Virginia open data portal also features resources on data use, a data dictionary, and an open data catalog.